Thursday, May 24, 2012

Anglers that live in the Mid Atlantic are truly lucky to live so close to the Potomac River and the Upper Chesapeake Bay. These two fishing locations are amongst the best bass fishing destinations in the country and luckily only a short drive for most anglers living in the Mid Atlantic States.

With high gas prices and hotel rooms costing so much, making a day trip to the Potomac and Upper Bay is easy on your wallet compared to driving long distances and having to spend the night in search of quality fishing. These two bodies of water really have shown to have amongst the Countries Best Bass Fishing.

This past weekend, the FLW and BFL held a Tour Event and the All American on the Potomac River. These tournaments were both held at the National Harbor Complex just below the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The touring Pros that fished in the Tour Event could only fish below South Point and the All American Anglers could only fish above the WW Bridge. The Pros fished for four days after making cuts after Day 2 and Day 3 while the All American Anglers fished three days after the cut following Day 2. The winner of the Pro Event had a total weight of 66.06 lbs. for 4 days or a 16.51 lbs. average per day. The winner of the All American had a total of 43.04 lbs. or 14.34 lbs. average per day. In fact, the Tour Event had a greater weight (200 more lbs.) on the first two days than the Okeechobee Tour event that holds all the records. Many local anglers felt bad for the All American Anglers because they had to fish the bad section of the river. It appears from these weights in both events that the Potomac River has no bad sections. Almost every Pro angler that fished the Tour event stated that the Potomac is in the top 10 bass fishing locations in the country.

I can remember putting fishing trips together with my buddies, we would drive hundreds of miles to a great fishing location down south. We would spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars chasing that little green fish we all love to chase. That has all changed now, all we have to do is going fishing on the Potomac or the Upper Bay to catch all the quality fish we want. Man are we lucky to live so close to such great bass fishing.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

We all like to fish and boat on beautiful sunny days, but we all need to be careful, because the sun can kill you. I am sitting here at MARE Inc. on a rainy Tuesday in early May, making arrangements to attend a funeral for one of our longtime friends, he was one of the marine industries best that I have dealt with for some 24 years. He died of skin cancer after fighting a courageous battle for two years. He loved the outdoors and especially small mouth bass fishing on the Susquehanna River.

Many of us have gone out fishing and boating without sun protection and, after a couple of days of peeling and discomfort we recovered. But some people do not recover. Prolonged exposure to the sun and multiple sunburns can lead to skin cancer. Several types of skin cancer left unaddressed can cause death. Everyone of us that spend time outdoors enjoying sports and recreation need to take steps to ensure that we are protected from the ultra violet rays that destroy our skin.

Today there is a great number of products on the market that can protect you from the sun for endless hours. Sun screen lotions, clothing materials that breath but protect you from UV's, hats and many products from a company called Buff. When it comes to sun screens, I prefer those that use zinc. Zinc is the white paste like cream that the lifeguards in all the movies have on. You will not tan using zinc, it blocks the suns rays and is not attractive to look at but it works. Clothing materials have come to the market that wicks away moisture yet breath so you never get overheated even when using long sleeves. Many of these clothing manufactures even put SPF ratings on their products. Hats and visors protect your head and even when used with polarized eye wear improve your vision. One quick tip is to find a hat or visor that the underside of the brim is dart colored, really helps your vision. The biggest trend in sun protection brought to us from a company called Buff. Other companies make similar products but they are the trailblazers when it comes to sun protection for anglers. Buff offers a sleeve that pulls down over your head and covers your neck, it can be worn several ways as preferred by the user. They also offer gloves, I know "gloves", these gloves are comfortable and can be worn even when handling the smallest task, like knot tying. So as you can see, there are lots of ways to protect yourself from the sun while fishing and boating.

Thursday I will attend Oz's funeral, back when he was young, the use of sun protection was not as advanced as it is today. There are no more excuses for any of us getting skin cancer from sun exposure. We all should use Oz's death as a sign to take better care of ourselves. As for Oz, tight lines and big small mouth jumps my friend.